The most potent threats to life on earth - global warming, health pandemics, poverty and armed conflict - could be ended by moves that would unlock $7 trillion - $7,000,000,000,000 (£3.9trn) - of previously untapped wealth, the United Nations claims today. The price? An admission that the nation-state is an old-fashioned concept that has no role to play in a modern globalised world where financial markets have to be harnessed rather than simply condemned.In a groundbreaking move, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) has drawn up a visionary proposal that has been endorsed by a range of figures including Gordon Brown, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel Laureate.It says an unprecedented outbreak of co-operation between countries, applied through six specific financial tools, would slice through the Gordian knot of problems that have bedevilled the world for most of the last century.... http://news.independent.co.uk

Key points• MOD issues misleading figures on number of military injuries in Iraq • Genuine figure may be closer to 800 rather than 230• Published reports of British combat injuries in Iraq since March 2003 Key quote"These are not great statistics," he said. "We are fully aware that there may have been hundreds of others with superficial injuries but we don't have those figures." MOD SPOKESMANStory in full THE Ministry of Defence has admitted that it issued misleading figures for the number of British soldiers injured in Iraq after a Scotsman investigation found that they were wildly inaccurate. John Reid, the Defence Secretary, last week claimed that about 230 UK personnel had been wounded in action in Iraq since the start of the war in March 2003. The new figure was substantially smaller than previous estimates and would mean British troops had a ratio of deaths to injuries of roughly 1:3, compared with the US ratio of 1:7. ...http://news.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=147612006

American officials in Iraq are in face-to-face talks with high-level Iraqi Sunni insurgents, NEWSWEEK has learned. Americans are sitting down with "senior members of the leadership" of the Iraqi insurgency, according to Americans and Iraqis with knowledge of the talks (who did not want to be identified when discussing a sensitive and ongoing matter). The talks are taking place at U.S. military bases in Anbar province, as well as in Jordan and Syria. "Now we have won over the Sunni political leadership," says U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad. "The next step is to win over the insurgents." The groups include Baathist cells and religious Islamic factions, as well as former Special Republican Guards and intelligence agents, according to a U.S. official with knowledge of the talks. Iraq's insurgent groups are reaching back. "We want things from the U.S. side, stopping misconduct by U.S. forces, preventing Iranian intervention," said one prominent insurgent leader ...http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11079548/site/newsweek/

LONDON: British soldiers in Iraq will face greater risk as Britain begins to withdraw its troops from the country, Defence Secretary John Reid said on Sunday. British officials have said they hope to reduce their forces in the country from the current 8,000 some time in 2006. Ninety-eight British troops have died since the 2003 invasion, about two-thirds of them in combat and insurgent attacks. The troops, based around Basra in the country’s south, have been targeted by a spate of roadside bombs and other violence. “It is getting riskier,” Reid told Sky News television. Reid said he hoped British troops would begin to depart this year, “as the hand-over occurs to the Iraqi security services that we are building up.” “We will then find that there is a greater propensity for the terrorists to attack because they retreat into last bastions,” Reid said....http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006%5C01%5C30%5Cstory_30-1-2006_pg4_10

Bush gives his State of the Union speech tomorrow night facing an unpopular war, an ethical cloud shrouding his fellow Republicans & a midterm election that will decide whether the party keeps control of Congress. The president has one formidable weapon available to meet these challenges: the ``bully pulpit'' of his office. Tomorrow's address will provide clues to how Bush will use that weapon to persuade voters to stay with him and his party. A strong speech may set up a year that reverses the political damage of 2005, when setbacks drove his public approval ratings to the lowest of his presidency. Another such year, culminating in a Republican defeat in November, would reduce Bush's effectiveness in his last two years in office and may diminish his entire presidency. That `bully pulpit'' has been used for selling the people a pack of lies and now he thinks anyone in their right mind will believe what he is going to push from it now? Well most have a short memory so no bets...http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=aRZrMqeQXaVc&refer=home

Former lobbyist Jack Abramoff visited the White House on at least a half-dozen social occasions, including Hanukkah celebrations, receptions and one meeting with Bush that included 20 other participants. Abramoff never lobbied or attempted to influence Mr. Bush on behalf of his clients, said a source familiar with the visits, but did have his picture taken with the president, as did hundreds of other visitors attending those events over a four-year period. The meeting with Mr. Bush included some policy discussions "that were not relevant" to any of Abramoff's clients, the source said, but it focused on the audience's asking the president questions. "The White House is making too much of a mystery out of this and needs to release the dates, times, details and photos of the visits," the source said. "It's not like [Abramoff and Mr. Bush] were plotting to overthrow Iraq." The call to release the information was echoed on yesterday's political talk shows by Republican lawmakers, who ...http://www.washtimes.com/national/20060130-123153-9431r.htm